Day 19: Washington DC
Welcome
Yesterday we returned to D.C. for our show at 9.30 Club.
Golden Sparkle Face made it into D.C. early in the morning and was laid up outside the venue when we began to rise. It was a clear day; still a bit brisk, but with a welcome amount of sunlight.
I almost went out for breakfast but at the last second changed my mind and put together a fruit splendour of mandarin, banana, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, kiwifruit, pineapple yoghurt, and deluxe mixed nuts.
Once everyone was awake, had completed their food ingestion, and stepped into their clothing, we headed off together for a museum trip. We took a cab to Independence Avenue, the broad street which runs parallel to Constitution Avenue and connects the Capitol Building to the National Mall. This area of D.C. is heavily populated with museums and galleries and the one we were headed to was the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
We almost didn’t make it in. We forgot to reserve our free tickets online and when we showed up the session was booked up. Luckily there were extra tickets being released at lunchtime, so we waited around, constantly refreshing our phones until we were successful.
The National Air and Space Museum is actually split into two locations, with the second location half an hour west of Washington. That one has a huge hangar with an impressive collection of aircraft including a Space Shuttle, and a Concord. The Independence Ave museum is home to an incredible collection of Apollo Program spacecraft and other related equipment, and that is what we had come to see.
When you walk into the exhibition the first thing you see is Alan Shepard’s Mercury capsule - the first manned American spacecraft. I was taken aback by how tiny this thing was. It must have taken a lot of nerve to be stuck in a pressurised cabin, unable to move from your custom-molded fiberglass seat, and have these thin walls as the only barrier between you and the vacuum of space.
This craft was mostly constructed of lightweight titanium, however the corrugated skin you see covering the exterior is actually made from heat-resistant beryllium shingles for heat resistance upon re-entry.
This is the Apollo 11 command module, the same one that Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong drove to the moon. Unlike the shiny silver command module we saw in Seattle, this one has been through a reentry into Earth’s atmosphere and the 2700°C heat has burnt off the silver Mylar coating and charred the phenolic resin heat shield that protected the astronauts inside. This looks like a spacecraft from a completely different generation to the Mercury or Gemini capsules, both of which had instrument panels that remind you of 1950s audio equipment; big metal switches with analog dials and needles. Apollo 11’s interior remind you more of a 1990s airliner, with much more sophisticated instrumentation presented in uniform plastic panels, and even a digital computer display.
The scorched underside of the Apollo 11 command module. The brazed steel honeycomb structure is visible in this image; it was filled with phenolic epoxy resin and then sealed. This shield was designed to vaporise in the atmospheric friction and keep the crew compartment safe.
I love this flight plan. A triumph of document writing and graphic design. The way that it presents data using simple columns, each of which specifies an individual astronaut’s roles along a timeline, while allowing shared responsibilities to be easily displayed. The use of maneuvering diagrams is a great way to clarify important procedures and remove text clutter from the document.
The exhibition also features a lot of the equimpent from the periphary of these Apollo missions like lunar hand tools, camera equipment, scientific experiments, and even a lunar rover.
There was a section that talked about the food consumed by Apollo astronauts and I was very interested to find out what constitutes a space meal. Each crew member got to choose their menu for the trip, and as you can see Neil Armstrong has quite a bit of variation in his breakfasts, though he does love to eat things that are cubed.
At 3pm we were back at the 9.30 Club for load-in. I really loved this venue. They served hot food and coffee to its staff as they worked through the afternoon. There are great sight lines for any audience member thanks to the tiered mezzanine. There was even a tiny balcony we could access from our green room and look down on the stage.
Our green room had very stylish decor and even several bunks accessible by ladder for if you need a pre show rest.
Get out those VR goggles again for here is a panorama of 9:30 Club.
Mia took some great shots of the show which do an incredible job of capturing the atmosphere in the room.
After a couple of weeks of shows Gabe feels that he is getting the load-out down to a pretty fine art. Here he is standing next to the pack train, ready for a rapid, sequential trailer pack.
